How to prevent Nature-Deficit Disorder: Regina Brett

Updated September 15, 2016 at 1:07 PM;Posted September 15, 2016 at 1:05 PM

solstice-steps.jpg

The Lakewood Solstice Steps in Lakewood Park, overlooking Lake Erie, consists of five tiers with four concrete steps in each, or a total of 20, rising a total of 36 feet from the lower to upper promenades.
(PD file/Steven Litt)

Summer officially ends Sept. 21, but the end of summer doesn't have to be a bummer.

For many people, summer ends when school starts, Labor Day hits or when they crack open the winter wardrobe to dig out a sweater.

If you're starting to spend more time indoors and are thinking about where to hibernate during winter weather, think again.

I just finished reading three books by Richard Louv, who coined the phrase "Nature-Deficit Disorder" to describe the gap between children and nature. The diagnosis fits too many adults -- myself included.

I'm spending way too much time checking my likes and shares and followers and friends instead of actually going for a walk with a real live friend.

NDD will hit even harder once summer says goodbye.

In "The Nature Principle," Louv talks about the sea of circuitry we swim in, with TVs, phones and computers that rob us of deeply connecting with nature.

The book asks, "What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology?"

How much time do you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit or Snapchat? How much time do you spend with your feet planted firmly on Planet Earth, taking in all the breathtaking beauty it offers?

In "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv writes, "Television remains the most effective thief of time." It steals hour after hour from us and our children.

This quote should scare us into sending our kids outside: "Our children are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world."

We've all heard of the Leave No Child Behind movement. Louv has created a "Leave No Child Inside" movement.

His book, "Vitamin N" offers "500 ways to Enrich the Health & Happiness of Your Family & Community." Here are a few ideas Louv offered that spoke to me:

Make a list of monthly adventures and schedule them on the calendar.

Start an outdoor adventure club with your neighbors or friends.

Go for a full moon walk. If you don't want to go alone, join the Cleveland Hiking Club. The group is amazing. Nearly every day -- no matter what the weather -- they offer a dozen or more hikes.

If you can, create a Green Hour every day. If you can't, create a few green minutes. Start with 15 minutes a day with tips from greenhour.org

Take a daily nature break. Give the words "nature calls" a new meaning, and head outside for lunch or a 10-minute walk to break up the day. Check out the clouds. Feel the rain. Touch some earth. Hug a tree. Sleep with the windows open a crack, no matter how cold it gets

Sit and listen for three minutes. Study the stars. Look between the spaces of branches and trees to see them with new eyes.

Create a bucket list of places to explore. Here are some places I plan to spend more time outside:

Lakewood Park offers one of the best views of Cleveland. You can soak up the lake sitting the Solstice Steps as the sun sets.

Lake View Cemetery is a great place to wander, and a good reminder to get busy living while you're still above ground to do it.

The Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cleveland Metroparks, the Shaker Nature Center and the Shaker Lakes all offer acres of amazement.

Lake Metroparks Farmpark is a working farm in Kirtland where you can meet pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and cows up close and personal.

Holden Arboretum has become one of my favorite new gems, with the views from the Emergent Tower and Treetop Canopy Walk.

The Botanical Gardens, or as my grandkids call it, the Botanically Gardens, is a beautiful place to become best buds with the butterflies.

I've also added a tour of Ohio's waterfalls that ran on Cleveland.com to my bucket list.

And if you're stuck inside at work all day, give yourself a break, a nature break.

And never judge the weather by calling it bad. As my friend Maurice taught me, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. "Bad" weather is an invitation to see nature at its wildest best.

As fall and winter approach, I hope to live a more outdoor life, not less of one. I want to live, as Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "in radical amazement."

Which will surely give me more interesting things to share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.